Recording listening tests

 

Most of ALTs are asked to record listening tests for their schools. In my case, I did 3 since September. You may wonder why they ask me to do it, considering my “French-Canadian” English… well, I’m pretty much the only option they have and my accent is really not that bad when I’m careful (…I think).

Nevertheless, recording a good listening test is not that easy. You need a good script that is at least a bit entertaining to avoid sleeping students. It also needs to be at the right level of difficulty and mostly use vocabulary covered in class. From my experience, however easy you think your test is, you need to make it a bit easier… it often turns out that the student’s results are much lower than I expected. The questions also need to be somewhat diversified in their format (questions from a dialogue, description of images or situations, filling missing words in a spoken text or a song…). Since I usually end up having to mark about 300 tests (and I’m not exaggerating), most of my questions are “multiple choice” ones. I know it might not be the best pedagogical way of testing the students, but it’s pretty much my only way to meet the marking deadline (I’m usually given a day do to it at work) and to keep my sanity.

I find that writing two documents is truly essential. One will be the text that actually needs to be recorded (including all the details like saying the question numbers, introducing and concluding the test, etc.) and the other one is the answer sheet for the students. I think making a good detailed script is the most important part. Later on, the recording process is much smoother.

The first time I was asked to record a listening test, I was brought in the “broadcasting room”. It mostly consists of a main control board, whichis programmed to ring all the bells during the day (so, no touchy), a table and a bunch of tape decks… It might be surprising, but I think many Canadian high schools are better equipped than the Japanese high schools for audio-visuals. To say the least, I knew quickly that my laptop would get the gig. Since it’s pretty straightforward, I record the tests in Garage Band, which gives me more than enough tools to record a couple of vocal tracks and, sometimes, a music/sound effects track. I even skip the microphone and use the laptop’s built-in mic most of the times (it’s actually surprising how well it captures the human voice). Of course, I would never do that if I was recording a singer, but for constant-low-dynamic spoken words it does the job. It should be noted that these built-in mics are pretty much “ambient” mics, so they will also capture all the little noises in the room. If you can find a really quiet place to record, it should be fine, but if it’s a bit noisy, a proxy mic will work much better. I won’t get into the details of sound engineering, but for this kind of work, I find that simpler is usually better.

Afterward, it’s important to “do” the test to make sure that everything makes sense and that there is enough time between questions so the students can write down their answers.

Before this year, I never had the opportunity to record listening tests since it doesn’t seem really appropriate for a chemistry test. Maybe there could be a way to have a science listening test, but I have yet to find pedagogical value in it. Let me know if you think of anything. Surprising the students and finding new approaches to teaching and evaluating the concepts is always good to freshen the classroom dynamics and to keep the students motivated.

I am also still trying to find the right way to introduce voice recording in the classroom. I’m sure there could be tremendous value in recording the students and have them listen back to their performance. Maybe some kind of radio-play or something could be fun… I can see it work well in some schools and not so well in others. I think a lot of students might not have to confidence to have their voices recorded while speaking English. Hum… lot’s to figure out.